The Los Angeles Lakers will look to remain undefeated on their road trip while winning their eighth straight game as they take on the struggling San Antonio Spurs.
After two decades of consecutive playoff appearances, the Spurs seem to have fallen on hard times and are losers of eight out of nine games. After a strong 4-1 start to the 2019-20 NBA season, the Spurs have gone just 2-10, including a loss to the Lakers earlier in the season.
The Lakers and Spurs met at the beginning of November when the latter was able to keep it close but never took the lead as the former had a near wire-to-wire win, 103-96.
In that game, LeBron James led the way and with a lack of true interior depth, Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee may be able to feast in this game. Anthony Davis and James have been playing absurdly good basketball as of late and a road matchup against the Spurs will be a good test to continue that.
The Lakers will once again be without Avery Bradley as he recovers from a hairline fracture. He will be re-evaluated the day after Thanksgiving when the Lakers next play at home against the Washington Wizards.
The Lakers have struggled defensively without Bradley, going from first in defensive rating down to fifth. They’ll have to keep the Spurs scoring attack at bay. The Spurs are the fifth-ranked offensive team in the league, but are in the bottom five on the defensive end. If the Lakers can’t establish a defensive identity early on in this one, they’ll look to be in yet another shootout.
Even in an off season, the Spurs still have a good homecourt advantage and the Lakers will need to be wary of this heading in. As hot as the Lakers have been, their competition hasn’t been world-beaters recently. The mark of a good team is taking care of the teams they should beat, and this will be another one of those tests.
The Lakers are currently 10-0 this season against teams under .500, meaning they’ve been doing their job exactly as they should. It’s important the Lakers rack up the wins now because when Dec. 1 comes around, they won’t have easy nights for quite some time.
If the Lakers can beat the Spurs, they’ll collect their eighth straight win for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
Los Angeles Lakers (14-2) vs. San Antonio Spurs (6-11)
5:30 P.M. PT, Nov. 25, 2019
AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas
TV: Spectrum SportsNet
Radio: 710 AM (ESPN), 1330 KWKW (Spanish)
Projected Lakers Starting Lineup:
PG: LeBron James
SG: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
SF: Danny Green
PF: Anthony Davis
C: JaVale McGee
Key Reserves: Kyle Kuzma, Dwight Howard, Alex Caruso, Rajon Rondo, Jared Dudley
Projected Spurs Starting Lineup:
PG: Derrick White
SG: Bryn Forbes
SF: DeMar DeRozan
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge
C: Jakob Poeltl
Key Reserves: Rudy Gay, Patty Mills, Marco Belinelli, Trey Lyles, DeMarre Carroll
